Tim Hawkins (and others) has four elements of a good youth talk:
- The Hook – why ought people listen? The hook establishes, in the first minute or two of the talk, why the listener ought to keep listening. This is similar to what David Cook calls the Big or Dominant Question.
- The Book – what the Bible has to say about this situation.
- The Look – helping the listeners to dig deeper into the Bible and what it means.
- The Took – is the ‘so what?’ How this part of the Bible impacts on the life of the listener.
I have listened to and given many talks to teenagers during the past year. My observation is that we are strong on the book and the look. But we are weak on the hook which leads to weakness with the took.
The hook is important in drawing the listener into hearing from the text. And the hook helps to shape the take-home cash-value ‘took’ throughout the talk.
What do you think makes a good hook?
For a good look – see the picture above…
(I may have lost weight – but my head’s still big!)
